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Visual Arts

Close up on Atlanta University's "City and Rural Population. 1890" data visualization

Document Deep Dive

W.E.B. Du Bois’ Visionary Infographics Come Together for the First Time in Full Color

His pioneering team of black sociologists created data visualizations that explained institutionalized racism to the world

A popular 19th-century slide depicts rats jumping into the throat of a sleeping man

Art Meets Science

Before There Was Streaming, the Victorians Had “Magic Lanterns”

New research finds these early image projectors, which brought world landmarks, fairytale favorites to life, were a regular part of middle-class life

Awesome Con provided an opportunity for science fiction and real-life science to play off of one another. The Robot from Netflix's Lost in Space reboot (center) illustrates the former, while the NASA jacket of the con attendee on the right nods to the latter.

The Real Science Behind Your Favorite Nerd Culture at Awesome Con

Astrophysicists, vehicle technicians and biologists joined the party to bring cutting-edge research to fictional worlds

Using "visual fingerprints" in works of art, Smartify can quickly ID that painting you want to know more about

App Aims to be the “Shazam” of the Art Museum

With a database of 30 museums worldwide and growing, Smartify can use your phone camera to identify and explain works of art

Part of Blade Runner's enduring appeal are the questions it poses about the nature of humanity—should replicants have the same rights as humans?

Are Blade Runner’s Replicants “Human”? Descartes and Locke Have Some Thoughts

Enlightenment philosophers asked the same questions about what makes humans, humans as we see in the cult classic

Make your art better with this highly trained AI named Vincent

Watch This AI Turn Sketches into Masterpieces

Trained on the ‘history of human art,’ this system can transform your scribbles

New Research

So Is ‘Mona Lisa’ Smiling? A New Study Says Yes

Compared to other similar images, the masterpiece’s mouth registered as happy to almost 100 percent of the participants

Ace Harlyn (active ca. 1930–40), Charlie Wagner tattooing Millie Hull, 1939, oil on canvas

Tattooing Was Illegal in New York City Until 1997

The New-York Historical Society’s newest exhibit delves into the history of the city’s once-turbulent ink scene

Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller

Iggy Pop Bares More Than Abs in New Art Exhibition About Masculinity

Punk meets pencil in an art show that examines the portrayal of masculinity throughout the centuries

The faces of A Peace of My Mind.

A Photographer’s 40,000-Mile Journey to Find What Peace Means to Americans

John Noltner has driven across the country in an effort to document the many definitions of peace

Director Guillermo del Toro Shares the Monsters in His Closet With the Public

The filmmaker talks about artifacts from his collection that are featured in the LACMA’s new exhibition, At Home with Monsters

Images are fast outpacing words as the major means of communication.

Commentary

How to Avoid the Pitfalls in the Politics of Graphic Messaging

The director of the National Portrait Gallery offers a few pointers on how to acquire visual intelligence

"Meditation and Minou," 1980, by Will Barnet.

Cool Finds

The Worcester Art Museum’s New Exhibit Is All Cats, All the Time

New art exhibit will trace humans’ captivation with cats throughout history

Cool Finds

Here’s Every Nuclear Detonation Ever

Watch all 2,153 nuclear detonations since 1945 in this bleak visualization

A shadowy scene from F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922).

Someone Stole the Skull of ‘Nosferatu’ Director F.W. Murnau

Thieves left behind traces of wax, suggesting occult practices might be at play here

Photographer Joseph Michael explored the 30-million-year old limestone caves of New Zealand's North Island, a favored spot for glowworms, to create these dazzling long-exposure shots.

Captivating Long-Exposure Photos of New Zealand’s Glowworm Caves

These new shots show the otherworldly magic created by a carnivorous fungus gnat

"Out of Many, One" by Jorge Rodrígues-Gerada on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Want to See the New Massive Portrait on the National Mall? Go Up

The project, made of soil and sand, will cover five acres between the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial

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Cool Finds

Watch How Jim Henson Animated Jazz With Tiny, Dancing Strips of Paper

Jim Henson had a soft spot for jazz

The Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership is a 1,200-pound aluminum stage prop that once stole the show at funk singer George Clinton's concerts. Now, it's a part of the Smithsonian's permanent collections.

Breaking Ground

Watch George Clinton’s P-Funk Mothership Get Reassembled For Its Museum Debut

A timelapse video shows Smithsonian curators rebuilding one of music’s most iconic stage props—the Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership

Art Meets Science

Should We Use Body Painting to Teach Anatomy?

Artist Danny Quirk’s paintings on the skin of willing friends show in textbook-like detail the muscle, bone and tissue that lie underneath

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